On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate denied several motions from lawyers representing James Seale, the 71-year-old former Klansman held in federal custody for his alleged role in the abduction and murder of Charles Moore and Henry Dee in 1964. Wingate denied a motion to dismiss all charges against Seale and a motion to revoke a Jan. 29 order for Seale to remain incarcerated without bond in federal prison.
Citing U.S. v. Jackson, a 1968 Supreme Court ruling that removed kidnapping from the list of crimes punishable by death, federal public defender Dennis Joiner argued that charges stemming from the 1964 murders are not capital offenses and thus would have exceeded their statute of limitations in 1969. Special litigation counsel Paige Fitzgerald, arguing for the prosecution, said that the 1968 ruling did not apply retroactively, and that in 1964 kidnapping was a capital offense unbound by statutes of limitation.
Seale is accused of kidnapping Moore and Dee, tying the 19-year-olds to a tree and ordering other Klansmen to beat them with long bean sticks, as he held a gun on them.
In an attempt to overturn U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson's ruling to deny bond for Seale on Jan. 29, the defense called upon additional testimony from Seale's wife, Jean Seale. Examined by public defender Kathy Nester, Jean Seale testified that her husband, who has bladder, lung and skin cancer, had not gone to previously scheduled medical appointments while in federal prison. However, she could provide no first-hand knowledge that he was receiving insufficient medical care.
"The magistrate judge specifically addressed (Seale's) medical needs. The witness acknowledged no direct knowledge of failing to attend to these medical needs," he said.
Seale stands trial April 2.
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